To be as we are, posing as self-assured and clever men, is a silly state of affairs. It rings close to the saying, “your cup overfloweth”, and is the force which makes us learn so slowly, if we even learn at all. Keep it clear in mind that our way of being can be like wine, water, stone and metal. These are the states which define our quality regardless of any achievements you have noted down on your resume. A man relaxed of water or drunk of wine would both see those of stone and metal as merely crude forms modeled according to some lifeless design. Men of stone and metal are obstinate as the elements they are named after, requiring long periods of time to ever see even a subtle change in content or constitution.

Men of stone sometimes experience the state of water and have that taste with them to some glimmer or degree.  It allows them to stop for a moment every so often and reconsider what they believe to be true. Very soon they forget all about it as the storms and streams of life distract them back into the fog of discontent. They are too intimately attached to the script of their role to be expected to move into a flowing state such as water and harmoniously live in the moment as creatures of the now. Yet they do have in potential this capacity to notice what may exist around the corner, and perhaps even make an effort to crumble themselves down into the finer particles necessary to get there.

Men of metal are lost in the sea and will forever disappoint any fans on the ethereal benches, rooting for their unlikely escape from such poor conditions. They are so deeply ingrained into the character that they have been conditioned to play, that they would crack and vanish altogether if they were to be exposed to the state of water. For this reason they are separated from such a possibility by a wall so thick that not even a sound can be heard from the other side. The rules and patterns of the social stratum and what it dictates as right, wrong, and taboo, is what defines them in every inch of what and who they are. Their souls can be likened to inmates confined in a dirt hole with no sunlight and a scant inflow of poisonous air.

The glue and mortar which condemns us to the heavy existence of these types of elemental states are both numerous and few. The greatest of them lingers as the need to be self-assured as a confident, assertive and interesting individual so that other stone and metal creatures can approve of them. It is of course insanity to which this all refers, but one which is shared by the great majority of the modern bi-pedals who on the inside think so low of themselves and on the outside believe they deserve the treasures of every comfort. And of course they do, for they are raised as imitations of those who brought them forth into this world and those who dare call themselves educators and models of high-esteem. Yet the truth is they are all damned to a life closed in a jagged box.

Look to what may be called humility and don’t attempt to answer the question of what it is. Consider the religious quality which they call god-fearing and do not dismiss it as superstitious or naïve. Wonder what it is like to move through a dense and tense crowd and not fall under the lies within you which command certain postures and behaviours to be enacted in vain. For they are lies implanted within your core from a time you cannot even remember, and the only reality it serves is a sad child who fears for its survival at every opportune moment. Regardless of what is upon you at any moment, there must be a side which understands the irrelevance of living a single moment subject to fears and doubts to what you deserve or are owed. Instead, attempt the impossible and perform the wonder of turning metal and stone into water and wine.